Background information on the IdematLightLCA app
General
The IdematLightLCA app has been developed as an extension of the Idemat app for sustainable materials selection: it has the same functions, however, you can additionally make simple LCA calculations on your smartphone.
For the use of the basic Material Selection function, as well as the email export to make a full Fast Track calculation in Excel, see instruction video 1 . For the use of the LCA function (IdematLightLCA app) see instruction video 2 (after video 1).
Since a smartphone is too small to accomodate complex LCA calculations, the software of the IdematLightLCA app was designed to keep the calculation relative simple, and at the same time cover the majority of the cases of product and system innovation in the early stages of the design.
The required simplicity of ‘LightLCA’ is enabled by the following constraints:
1. the single indicator is selected prior to the calculation (midpoint data can only be found in the original Idemat tables via the export function)
2. the result is given for 3 end-of-life scenarios (100% landfill, 100% waste treatment, 100% C2C circular economy); linear interpolation between the 3 scenarios is possible, but complex end-of-life scenarios are not accomodated
3. systems with so-called co- or by-products are not accomodated
4. calculations on emissions of the so-called ‘foreground processes’ are restricted to CO2e, SO2e, PO4e, C2H4e and fine dust (PM2.5); the use of the UseTox tables as provided in the Midpoint excel tables at this website is not accommodated
Since the data tables are based on the Idemat tables of this website, calculated via Simapro (with rigorous LCA), there is no compromise in accuracy as such, provided that the user has applied correct and adequate system boundaries to define the LCA input. Users who have Simapro , can have full transparency of the calculations when they import the eco-costs library file and the Idemat library file (both. csv). In Open LCA these files are available as well for a small entrance fee.
